Verse-by-Verse — Col 1:15-20

Going line by line, word by word. Greek lexeme for every significant term. BP material attached where it speaks to that specific word.

This sits alongside the themed files in ../. The themed files are organized by concept; these are organized by verse. Same material, two orderings — pick whichever helps you sift.

Files

• README.md — this file
• v15_image_firstborn.md — eikōn, aoratos, prōtotokos, ktisis
• v16_all_things_created.md — ktizō, ta panta, ouranoi, gē, horatos/aoratos, thronoi, kyriotētes, archai, exousiai, di' autou, eis auton
• v17_before_holds.md — autos, pro pantōn, synistēmi
• v18_head_body_beginning.md — kephalē, sōma, ekklēsia, archē, prōtotokos ek nekrōn, prōteuō
• v19_pleasure_fullness_dwell.md — eudokeō, plērōma, katoikeō
• v20_reconcile_peace_blood_cross.md — apokatallassō, eirēnopoieō, haima, stauros

Method / conventions

For each phrase:

• Original Greek (from NA28 / SBLGNT, the modern critical text — same Greek text underlying ESV, NIV, NASB, NRSV, CSB).
• Transliteration in italics: eikōn.
• Lexeme entry: the dictionary form (lemma) + grammatical info (part of speech, gender, case/tense/voice/mood as relevant).
• Lexicon range: the semantic territory the Greek word covers — what English options it could map to, what it includes that English flattens.
• LXX usage: how the Septuagint uses this Greek word to translate Hebrew. Paul reads the Hebrew Bible through the LXX; the LXX's word choices are inside Paul's vocabulary.
• Other Pauline usage: where else Paul uses the same word, and what work it does there.
• BP material: verbatim quotes with [record_id] citations, drawn from the corpus + voyage sweep + records pulled to ../_raw/records/.
• Hyperlinks: scriptural and conceptual cross-references the word activates.
• ANE / 1st-century context: what a Colossian hearer in mid-1st-century Asia Minor would recognize in the term.
• Refused binaries: where Paul's usage refuses a frame the modern hearer (or 1st-century hearer) would default to.
• Pastoral cargo: what weight the word carries that's worth surfacing or letting sit.

Whose Greek is this?

Where I say "the Greek means X," I'm drawing on:

• Standard NT Greek lexicons (BDAG, Liddell-Scott-Jones, TDNT) — my training-data knowledge of these.
• Standard NT grammars on tense/voice/case force.
• BP corpus material where Tim Mackie or others discuss the word directly.

I'll mark places where I'm using my own lexical knowledge versus places where BP teaches the word explicitly. For anything load-bearing in the sermon — verify against the actual lexicon entries (BDAG is gold standard). I am not a Greek lexicon. I am a research companion who can read Greek competently.

Confabulation guardrails

Per the project's CLAUDE.md and the message-prep skill:

• BP material here is quoted verbatim with [record_id]. Cross-check against ../_raw/records/<id>.md if anything matters.
• Greek lexical info is from training; standard but not infallible. Verify before claiming it from the pulpit.
• I have NOT invented Greek words or grammatical claims. Where the data is uncertain (e.g., textual variants in v20), I flag it.
• I have not arranged this material into a sermon structure. That remains your work.

How to use this for sifting

The themed files (../01_* through ../09_*) help you ask "which angle do I preach?"

These verse files help you ask "if I land on verse X, what do I have under each word?"

If you decide to preach 1:17 (the series-packet's key verse), v17_before_holds.md gives you the lexical and theological depth on every phrase in that one verse. If you decide to preach the whole hymn slowly, you've got six files to walk through.

Either way: the goal is sift, then commit. Tim's pastoral instruction stands —

"There's no way to truly explain this poem. You just sit with it." — [podcast:theme-god-e18-who-did-paul-think-jesus-was]

Use the lexical depth to deepen your own seeing. Don't try to land it all on the congregation.